Issa, Shimkus Question Legality of Yucca Nuke Decision

U.S. Reps. Darrell Issa and John Shimkus are questioning the legality of actions that President Barack Obama and his administration took to block construction of a nuclear-waste facility at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, according to a report in the DailyCaller.com.

Opposition to the containment facility, which was proposed in 1982, was one of the president’s talking points during his 2008 run. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission blocked licensing last year that would have allowed construction to move forward.

Issa, R-Ohio, wrote in a recently released letter to Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko that Jaczko had stressed openness in conducting public business. “Unfortunately, your actions surrounding the termination of the Yucca Mountain project fail to live up to this pledge,” Issa wrote.

Shimkus, R-Ill., who chairs a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, put it more bluntly. “This was initiated by a statute that was signed into law all the way back in 1982, so what’s the legal authority for us to stop? Many of us believe there is none, and this is politics at its worst at its highest levels,” he told the DailyCaller. “First of all, we think it is illegal for the NRC and for Obama through the secretary of energy to stop funding Yucca Mountain, and secondly, we really question the legality of the delaying its vote” on blocking the application for the license.